COLOMBIA'S KILLING FIELDS

U.S. Aid And Encouragement Are Not Enough

Unless the military respects human rights, it will only fuel the
guerrilla war and the drug trade.

Good intentions and money alone won't save Colombia. Even as the
Andean nation prepared last week for President Clinton's visit, the
drug trafficking didn't stop. Nor did the killing and chaos it fuels,
as evidenced by the strategically placed bomb found near one of his
stops in Cartagena.

But it's a start, a lever for change in that tormented nation. Now
it's imperative that Mr. Clinton, and his successor, use this aid and
the promise of future help to keep pressure on President Andres
Pastrana to clean up his military's human-rights record. Unless the
military respects human rights, it will only fuel the guerrilla war
and thus the drug trade.

The United States also should consider trade preferences for Colombia,
and work cooperatively with other nations and world institutions that
have pledged some $550 million in aid and credits.

We must help President Pastrana, too, to reassure regional allies that
``drug trafficking is the common enemy'' as he did at the Brasilia
Summit yesterday. All would suffer spillover violence should Colombia
spiral downward into total lawlessness.

Anything less than these steps and the $1.3 billion in U.S.
drug-fighting aid that President Clinton ceremoniously handed over to
Mr. Pastrana will be wasted, and both war and the drug trade will
continue. Mr. Clinton's promise -- ``This is not Vietnam, neither is
it Yankee imperialism'' -- would be gravely threatened.

We believe Colombia deserves this aid because Mr. Pastrana, unlike
predecessors, rightly has committed to seeking peace through a
comprehensive ``Plan Colombia'' that begins by crushing the drug
trade. Today Colombian narco-industrialists finance both leftist
guerrillas and right-wing militias. After years of the triple evils,
crime is widespread, and justice is spent. The ultimate toll is
astronomical: violent deaths (66 a day), kidnappings (seven a day),
flight from rural areas (more than 1 million homeless), exodus
(800,000 fleeing Colombia since 1996) and now economic recession
(unemployment hit 20 percent).

Some 80 percent of the U.S. package is for military equipment and
training aimed at combating narcotrafficking. It's likely that
guerrillas paid to protect coca fields and labs will be in the line of
fire. But this is a plus to the extent that these guerrillas finally
may be forced to talk peace when facing a strengthened military and
lost backing from drug financiers.

But Mr. Pastrana's disappointing efforts to curtail human-rights
abuses must improve. It is shameful that President Clinton had to
waive human-rights conditions that Congress set for the aid before he
could release the money.

Human-rights groups rightly criticize Colombia's failure to prosecute
known abusers in its military. Civilian prosecutors and advocates
regularly are threatened when investigating suspected military
human-rights violations. Nor are there adequate efforts to punish
military members who collaborate with paramilitaries, who regularly
commit atrocities.

Yet each town scorched, each civilian maimed -- by whatever faction --
provides recruits for the next round of war. Respect for human rights,
trade incentives, regional alliances and social programs hold the
answer. The $1.3 billion in U.S. aid is but a step toward getting there.